In commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/387,209, filed 7/31/89, entitled "Frequency Domain Integrating Resonant Superconducting Transmission Line Detector" Michael D. Jack discloses a FIRST detector that is comprised of a folded superconducting transmission line coupled at an input port to a microwave source and coupled at an output port to a microwave power monitor. An optically induced change in an inductance of the transmission line shifts the transmission line phase velocity and resonant frequency. This shift in resonant frequency attenuates the propagating wave amplitude proportionally to the product of the Q and the frequency shift. In Ser. No. 07/387,209 the FIRST detector is disclosed as a three layer structure having a bottom ground plane electrode and a top, superconductive radiation absorbing transmission line electrode.
Commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/557898, filed July 25, 1991, entitled "Superconducting Multilayer Architecture for Radiative Transient Discrimination" is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 07/387,209 and is also incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In this continuation-in-part application Michael D. Jack discloses a radiation detector that includes a superconductive transmission line having an input port for coupling to a frequency signal and an output port for coupling to a sensor for detecting a variation in the frequency signal. A transmission line electrode is interposed between a first electrode and a second electrode each of which is coupled to RF ground. The transmission line electrode is responsive to incident radiation that is absorbed within an adjacent RF ground electrode for having induced therein a change in a resonant frequency of the transmission line. Each of the RF ground electrodes is separated from the superconducting transmission line electrode by a layer comprised of a dielectric material.
It is an object of this invention to provide further embodiments of a FIRST detector.
It is another object of the invention to provide a superconductive resonant transmission line detector that is integrated with a photovoltaic radiation detector and that is responsive to radiation absorbed by the photodetector for having induced therein a change in resonant frequency that results in a detectable change to an on-resonance RF probe signal.